Fairly Normal People

-Chapter Four-

Andy's vision came to as he floated over his body in his ghostly mental construct, he scanned the room to double check on Lucy who had just begun dreaming sweetly, a warm yellow flame rose slowly out of her aura. Andy drifted upwards through the roof and didn't stop until he was fifty feet above the building, his senses reaching out of his essence like the beaming light from a lighthouse. The building below him was as it always was, peaceful and good natured dreams drifted lazily up and out of them, but the surrounding area had become dim and somewhat out of balance. Andy recalled that it had been a while since he had scanned the surrounding suburb, for too long he had spent his nights mesmerised by the view of the city and gently plucking random dreams from the torrent below. He had grown especially complacent over the last couple of months as if his age had finally defeated him and he was ready to lay down and count the days until his next reset. Lucy in her odd ways and interactions, regardless of the number of hours she had been in his life, had revitalised him though due in no part to her nightmare kickstarting his system. Eyes now figuratively open Andy looked at the city in a new light, or more accurately an old light, not as a picture on the wall or a vast untouchable flame that billowed menacingly in the distance but as the culmination of so many lives and aspirations, imaginations and dreams but also dreads and doubts. A balance he was meant to maintain, a divine duty that he had shirked for so long.

"I need to start making a change again..." Andy muttered with a hint of self doubt.

Andy had riled himself up into a self righteous determined fury before the weight of the world crashed down upon him. His own dreams and aspirations became caught in the avalanche of reality and were buried beneath it with an inaudible thud. His gaze wandered over the skyline again, the enormous black silhouette that walled off the horizon and threatened to fill the sky. The billowing flames that reached the clouds in a towering rainbow inferno intimidated even Andy.

"The world's just gotten too darn big." Andy said to himself as he held his hand out against the backdrop of the sky.

It used to be that Andy could easily manage a country of people, drifting from town to town without spreading himself out too thin. Eating and causing enough nightmares to keep him relevant, more than relevant; it kept him legendary. It used to be the whole of Europe and even parts of the Americas and Australia feared his presence. They checked their closets for him and were too scared to look out of their windows at night from just the chance that he would be there waiting for them on the other side. He was downright infamous with a reputation that followed him like a plague of whispers, each town a new and varied plethora of stories of their encounters with him, both real and imagined. A few cultures even regaled of him with power akin of a god, sometimes a vengeful spirit that would exacerbate one's guilt into an all consuming whirlpool that would sink them with the weight of their sins. While other times he was regarded as an evil spirit who would prey on weaknesses and fear, root it out of people and consume it. In truth he was both in his own special way, at least back in the day, Andy never truly knew what he was meant for or what he was created for, at least not the specifics. Perhaps he had no purpose other than those he created himself, perhaps he wasn't created at all but an unlucky accident by nature or the magical manifestation of humanity's fear and guilt. He had once made it his hobby to read books on myth in his search to find his own impact on history. He read stories that painted him in so many shades, even ones that portrayed or predicted his demise. If the years had taught Andy one thing, it was that his destiny was his own to craft, for good or for evil his fate was his own as was his consequences his own to bear.

"Now to check up on my latest of community services." Andy said with a small chuckle.

His gaze settled on a small bright light that rose ferociously from the general dull monotone of the surrounding houses. He zipped through the city streets towards his destination and settled near a brightly burning apartment block and basked in the orange light he had caused. The fire of nightmares bathed the house and Andy felt like a moth being drawn to a flame, only the flame wasn't literal and was in fact food. A wave of self satisfied emotions rolled over Andy and filled him to overflowing. He flew to the rooftop and swam amongst the dancing light, drinking in the essence that lit him up with a fierce energy. It had been so long, a self mediated fasting, since he had willingly drank from a torrent of nightmare energy. He tentatively grabbed a flickering ember and popped in his mouth with a devilish grin. The fleck had no taste and harboured little satisfaction, Andy was simply much too far away to be able to absorb any significant amount of the magical energy but his mystical envoy was able to read the dreams like a radio picking up signals. He felt the need to indulge in the fruits of his work. Though clumsy and sloppy; it had put the fear into them. He savoured the dream and drifted into it with a feeling of being whisked away into a sleep.